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2/23/2013

Aborting the Party of Lincoln

The last time America faced the government dehumanizing a class of human beings, the first Republican president, Abraham Lincoln, declared that the government does not have the right to deny any human being's inalienable rights.

Today, "moderate" Republicans are disagreeing with Lincoln, this time with a new class of people: the unborn.

Abortion is, like slavery, the government defining some members of the human race as not being persons whose rights are protected by the Constitution. Forget about religion -- we know that the unborn are members of the human race from the moment of conception from a purely scientific perspective. It's the DNA. Everyone reading this was once a fetus, just as he or she was once a newborn, a toddler, a child, and a teenager. A person by any other name would be as valuable.

Just as a black man is a human being endowed by God with inalienable rights whether he's called "black," "African-American," "negro," or even the N-word, the unborn are full-fledged members of the human race, even when they're called "fetuses."

If we say that it's okay to kill the unborn because of their age, then how can we object not just to "death panels," but to the forcible execution of those too old to make what the government feels is a sufficient contribution to society?

If we say it's okay to kill the unborn because of their dependency, then all of us who aren't survivalists could be marked for death. Who among us can truly say he lives without depending on anyone else? Even modern farmers depend on the people who manufacture tractors and advanced fertilizers. And, of course, the newly born are completely dependent on others, so objecting to infanticide would be useless -- note that already "ethicists" are making just that argument. On a note more bothersome to liberals, aren't those who spend their lives on the public dole just as dependent as the unborn? Yet who would say it would be okay to reduce the deficit by executing those who haven't supported themselves for years?